No more was to be learnt till Lucas found a Saturday to come down. Before he could say three words, he was cross-examined. Had he seen Elvira?
'Several times.'
'Spoken to her?'
'Yes.'
'What had she said?'
'Asked him to look at a horse.'
'Did she know he was coming home?'
'Yes.'
'Had she sent any message?'
'Well-yes. To desire that her Algerine costume should be sent up. Whew!' as Allen flung himself out of the room. 'How have I put my foot in it, mother?'
'You don't mean that that was all?'
'Every jot! What, has she not written? The abominable little elf! I'm coming.' And he shrugged his shoulders as Allen, who had come round to the open window, beckoned to him.
'He was absolutely grappled by a trembling hand, and a husky voice demanded, 'What message did she really send? I can't stand foolery.'
'Just that, Allen-to Emma. Really just that. You can't shake more out of me. You might as well expect anything from that Chinese lantern. Hold hard. 'Tis not I-'
'Don't speak! You don't know her! I was a fool to think she would confide to a mere buffoon,' cried poor Allen, in his misery. 'Yet if they were intercepting her letters-'
Wherewith he buried himself in the depths of the shrubbery, while Jock, with a long whistle, came back through the library window to his mother, observing-
'Intercepted! Poor fellow! Hardly necessary, if possible, though Lady Flora might wish to catch her for Clanmacnalty. Has the miserable imp really vouchsafed no notice of any of you?'
'Not the slightest; and it is breaking Allen's heart.'
'As if a painted little marmoset were worth a man's heart! But Allen has always been infatuated about her, and there's a good deal at stake, though, if he could only see it in the right fight, he is well quit of such a bubble of a creature. I wouldn't be saddled with it for all Belforest.'
'Don't call her any more names, my dear! I only wish any one would represent to her the predicament she keeps Allen in. He can't press for an answer, of course; but it is cruel to keep him in this suspense. I wonder Mrs. Evelyn did not make her write.
'I don't suppose it entered her mind that the little wretch (beg your pardon) had not done it of her own accord, and with those Folliotts there's no chance. They live in a perpetual whirl, enough to distract an Archbishop. Twenty-four parties a week at a moderate computation.'
'Unlucky child!'
'Wakefield is heartily vexed at her having run into such hands,' said Jock; 'but there is no hindering it, no one has any power, and even if he had, George Gould is a mere tool in his wife's hands.'
'Still, Mr. Wakefield might insist on her answering Allen one way or the other. Poor fellow! I don't think it would cost her much, for she was too childish ever to be touched by that devotion of his. I always thought it a most dangerous experiment, and all I wish for now is that she would send him a proper dismissal, so that his mind might be settled. It would be bad enough, but better than going on in this way.'
'I'll see him,' said Jock, 'or may be I can do the business myself, for, strange to say, the creature doesn't avoid me, but rather runs after me.'
'You meet her in society?'
'Yes, I've not come to the end of my white kids yet, you see. And mother, I came to tell you of something that has turned up. You know the Evelyns are all dead against my selling out. I dined with Sir James on Tuesday, and found next day it was for the sake of walking me out before Sir Philip Cameron, the Cutteejung man, you know. He is sure to be sent out again in the autumn, and he has promised Sir James that if I can get exchanged into some corps out there, he will put me on his staff at once. Mother!'
He stopped short, astounded at the change of countenance, that for a moment she could neither control nor conceal, as she exclaimed 'India!' but rallying at once she went on 'Sir Philip Cameron! My dear boy, that's a great compliment. How delighted your uncle will be!'
'But you, mother!'
'Oh yes, my dear, I shall, I will, like it. Of course I am glad and proud for my Jock! How very kind of Sir James!'
'Isn't it? He talked it over with me as if I had been Cecil, and said I was quite right not to stay in the Guards; and that in India, if a man has any brains at all and reasonable luck, he can't help getting on. So I shall be quite and clean off your hands, and in the way of working forward, and perhaps of doing something worth hearing of. Mother, you will be pleased then?'
'Shall I not, my dear, dear Jockey! I don't think you could have a better chief. I have always heard that Sir Philip was such a good man.'
'So Mrs. Evelyn said. She was sure you would be satisfied. You can't think how kind they were, making the affair quite their own,' said Jock, with a little colour in his face. 'They absolutely think it would be wrong to give up the service.'
'Yes; Mrs. Evelyn wrote to me that you ought not to be thrown away. It was very kind and dear, but with a little of the aristocratic notion that the army is the only profession in the world. I can't help it; I can't think your father's profession unworthy of his son.'
'She didn't say so!'
'No, but I understood it. Perhaps I am touchy; I don't think I am ungrateful. They have always made you like one of themselves.'
'Yes, so much that I don't like to run counter to their wishes when they have taken such pains. Besides, there are things that can be thought of, even by a poor man, as a soldier, which can't in the other line.'
This speech, made with bent head, rising colour, and hand playing with his mother's fan, gave her, all unwittingly on his part, a keen sense that her Jock was indeed passing from her, but she said nothing to damp his spirits, and threw herself heartily into his plans, announcing them to his uncle with genuine exultation. To this the Colonel fully responded, telling Jock that he would have given the world thirty years ago for such a chance, and commending him for thus getting off his mother's hands.
'I only wish the rest of you were doing the same,' he said, 'but each one seems to think himself the first person to be thought of, and her the last.'
'The Colonel's wish seemed in course of fulfilment, for when Lucas went a few days later to his brother Robert's rooms, he found him collecting testimonials for his fitness to act as Vice-principal to a European college at Yokohama for the higher education of the Japanese.
'Mother has not heard of it,' said Jock.
'She need not till it is settled,' answered Bobus. 'It will save her trouble with her clerical friends if she only knows too late for a protest.'
Jock understood when he saw the stipulations against religious teaching, and recognised in the Principal's name an essayist whose negations of faith had made some stir. However, he only said, 'It will be rather a blow.'
'There are limits to all things,' replied Bobus. 'The truest kindness to her is to get afloat away from the family raft as speedily as possible. She has quite enough to drag her down.'
'I should hope to act the other way,' said Jock.
'Get your own head above water first,' said Bobus. 'Here's some good advice gratis, though I've no expectation of your taking it. Don't go in for study in the old quarters! Go to Edinburgh or Paris or anywhere you please, but cut the connection, or you'll never be rid of loafers for life. Wherever mother is, all the rest will gravitate. Mark me, Allen is spoilt for anything but a walking gentleman, Armine will never be good for work, and how many years do you give Janet's Athenian to come to grief in? Then will they return to the domestic hearth with a band of small Grecians, while Dr. Lucas Brownlow is reduced to a rotifer or wheel animal, circulating in a trap collecting supplies, with 'sic vos non vobis' for his motto.'
